UPDATE: Day 2 of testimony underway in trial of man charged in 2005 Garland gang beating death

Testimony continues this morning in the trial of a man accused in a May 2005 Garland gang beating death of a 16-year-old boy.

Sergio Valencia, 25, faces a felony charge of engaging in organized crime. He is accused of being one of seven gang members who beat Jacob Orta and a friend with bats. Authorities say the gang beat, punched and kicked the boys because they thought they were in a rival gang.

But the boys weren’t in a gang. They were on their way back from getting snacks and soda from a local convenience store.

Jacob was left lying in a road. A van drove over his body and did not stop. He died at the scene.

His friend, Bobby Williams, suffered a broken arm and head injuries but he got away.

Others convicted in the case have been sentenced from probation to 50 years in prison. Valencia, a U.S. citizen, was extradited to Texas late last year after he was take into custody in central Mexico.

Now on the stand is Denise Salazar, a prosecution witness in the case who was 14 at the time of the beating.

UPDATE at 11:46 a.m.:

Salazar testified that she was one of a few girls out the night of the killing with the gang members, including Valencia.

They drove around in multiple vehicles and stopped at a gas station and a park. Then they drove some more en route to a party, she said.

They never made it.

Valencia was driving a pickup and Salazar said she was riding in a car that was following the pickup. They passed two boys walking along a street and pulled into an alley by a church, she said.

That’s when the gang members got out with bats and confronted the two boys they had seen on the street. Salazar said she heard arguing.

One boy, Bobby Williams, took off running. Jacob was left alone.

“They started punching him,” she said, adding that Valencia was among the men beating Jacob.

Prosecutor Travis Wiles asked if Jacob fought back.

“A little bit, until they knocked him to the floor,” Salazar said as she wept.

She said she also heard Jacob insisting that he wasn’t in a gang.

“No, I’m not a part of no gang,” Jacob said, according to Salazar. “No, you got it wrong. I’m not a part of nothing.”

Salazar said she and the other girls were screaming for the beating to stop.

After the beating, they left Jacob bleeding in the road. Salazar said she could see him twitching.

“There was blood, I believe it was coming from his head,” she said.

She said she felt horrible, but she never called police in part because she was scared of the gang members. Garland police tracked her down at her school several months later in September 2005.

At times during testimony this morning, Valencia could be seen shaking his head no and whispering to his lawyers.

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